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Retired homeowners have total property wealth owned outright of up to £765.18billion as the housing market continues its fragile recovery, according to research from equity release adviser Key Retirement Solutions.

The launch of Key Retirement Solutions’ Pensioner Property Equity Index, which will track the property wealth of the over-65s on a quarterly basis, shows that a third of the housing wealth is concentrated in London and the South East.

After the buy-to-let investment boom, the man on the street could soon be investing in a piece of large-scale rented housing developments funded by institutions and listed property firms.

The British Property Federation (BPF) has led an on-going campaign for reform of stamp duty rules which it says act as a huge disincentive.

As Government borrowings are expected to top £180billion for the current financial year an incoming Government, of any colour, is going to have to look at ways of increasing revenue and decreasing expenditure, according to Simon Dixon Smith of Savills, Chelmsford.

He said the latter was limited by political acceptability and so increasing revenue was inevitable.

The amount of households seeking a lodger increased 27% in the first two weeks of January, it is reported.

The number of live-in landlords advertising online for a lodger to help pay their mortgage costs jumped to 2487 from 1955, according to Spareroom.co.uk.

Equity release specialist Key Retirement Solutions said new plan numbers for 2009 were down 17% at 21,305 compared to 25,790 for 2008.

The statistics form part of the company's 2009 Equity Release Market Monitor.

More than one million householders have used credit cards to pay their mortgage or rent in the last 12 months, a new survey by Shelter has revealed.

Despite restrictions on credit and reports of many people paying off personal debt, an exclusive YouGov poll for the charity’s ROOF magazine reveals a disturbing picture of more than a million people taking desperate measures with credit cards to keep a roof over their head.

The highest proportion of those who pay their rent or mortgage through credit card were from working class professions (8% of those in the C2DE social grouping), but the poll also showed that middle/upper class (ABC1 category) are also falling victim, with 4% of respondents saying they use credit cards in this way.

More than seven million households in Britain are living in fuel poverty - more than double the official figures, according to a new poll.

The YouGov survey, which was commissioned by the National Housing Federation, also found that 63% of people were heating their homes less than they would like to cut costs - potentially putting their health at risk during cold snaps.

And 61% of people said they were worried or very worried about how they would pay for their energy bills this winter - as people struggle to balance their household budgets during the economic downturn.

As Britain's coldest winter for 30 years continues, housing charity Shelter has revealed that one in four people are having to reduce the amount they spend on heating because of high housing costs.

Its survey found 27% of respondents – equivalent to 11.3 million people nationwide – said they were spending less on fuel bills to help pay their rent or mortgage.

The Liberal Democrats’ proposed mansion tax on £2million properties would raise £1.05billion and hit 32,500 homeowners, according to new research from property website Zoopla.co.uk.

The website analysed all the properties in the country valued over the £2million threshold and calculated how much tax would be raised.

On average each homeowner would pay £32,700 per year, with those just above the threshold paying £20,000 while those with more expensive homes would pay much more.

In one year alone (2008/09), 130,000 households in England were prevented from becoming homeless or helped to find alternative accommodation by their local council.

The Homelessness Prevention and Relief statistics have been collated to highlight the preventative work being carried out by local authorities and their partners, on top of the action they are already taking to meet their legal obligations to help people under the homelessness legislation.